Together, We Prevail
by hickorydaisy
Summary: Tony Stark builds portals that don't exactly function as desired. Chaos ensues.
1. Chapter 1

Tony couldn't get the Chitauri Invasion out of his head. He couldn't stop thinking about flying through that portal with a nuclear missile. A nuclear missile. Clasped between his own two hands. How insane was that?

In the aftermath, he'd modified Stark Tower - Avengers Tower now, one of his modifications - but the only other Avenger who had moved in was Bruce Banner. Not that there was anything wrong with Banner, but he was still only one of five. Did they not like him or something?

Still, that wasn't the point. The point was, the tower was too big and empty, and he couldn't stop thinking about the wormhole in the sky the aliens had used against them.

Obviously, the solution was to build portals of his own so that they could not be weaponized against them again (hopefully), so that was what he was doing. Building a portal. Where to, he wasn't totally sure. He'd settle for it actually working first, and then figure that part out.

"Tony, what are you doing down here all the time?" Pepper asked. Because the tower was so big and lonely, he was at his beach house in Malibu. He felt bad for abandoning Banner like that, but here Tony was at least used to it being big and empty, with only Pepper and JARVIS for company. Speaking of Pepper, he should probably actually respond to her, shouldn't he?

"Trying to bypass the laws of time and space," he said, not looking up from his work. If Pepper was curious, she'd ask. If not, she'd leave him alone. That's how it always was.

"Tony, haven't you done enough of that?" Pepper sighed. "Come to bed, you haven't been sleeping."

"I'm fine, Pepper," Tony waved dismissively as he looked over the mess of parts that he was hoping would become a operational portal.

"You are not fine," Pepper scoffed. "You haven't been fine since New York, don't lie to me."

Tony finally turned around to actually look at Pepper, who was leaning against the doorframe with her eyebrows raised, looking highly skeptical and overall quite disbelieving.

"Okay, so I'm not fine," Tony sighed. Admitting that was almost physically painful, and if it had been anyone other than Pepper, he wouldn't have done it whether it was obvious to them or not. "But I am working on something that will make it so I can be fine."

"Is that so?" Pepper raised her eyebrows. "In that case, what have you been working on for the past month?"

"This," Tony gestured behind him at the half-finished lump of metal that was meant to become a portal soon enough.

"Tony, really? It's been a month! I don't care if you keep working on it later, but please take a break and come to bed! You need to sleep, all humans do!"

"Pepper, please? Just… Let me work for another hour or two? Please?" Tony sighed and did his best to look pathetic. He felt pathetic, so that wasn't really very difficult.

"One hour, Tony," Pepper glared. "If you aren't upstairs in exactly one hour, I will drag you upstairs myself. Understood?"

"Got it," Tony nodded and turned back to the half-finished portal. He heard Pepper ascend the stairs as he reached for his screwdriver. Whatever. She'd probably already be asleep in an hour, so he didn't really plan to make sure he was up there. She wouldn't notice if she was asleep.

An hour came and went, and, as Tony had suspected, Pepper did not come down. So Tony kept working. He finished his first model of the portal and began the start-up sequence.

JARVIS could be heard in the background narrating the start-up sequence, but Tony was focused only on the portal, which began to glow around the edges. It seemed to actually be working - for about half a second before flickering away, with nothing to show for it.

So Tony made a few adjustments to the device, and tried again. And again. And again. And again and again and again. After the seventh attempt, JARVIS interrupted, "Sir, you are receiving a video call from Dr. Banner."

"Alright, put him through," Tony sighed. What time was it? Not that it mattered, but he was slightly curious.

The video call sparked to life in front of him, and Bruce Banner appeared with a mildly worried expression. "Hey, Tony," he began, fiddling with something in his hands. "Hope you don't mind me calling at this hour, I just wanted to talk to somebody, and I figured you might be awake."

"Oh, no, yeah, it's fine," Tony briefly pinched the bridge of his nose. "I was working on a thing, but it isn't working for me, I could use a distraction."

"Oh?" Banner lit up, curious. "What are you working on?"

Tony weighed the options here. On the one hand, if Banner thought it was unwise to attempt to build a portal, he could tell SHIELD, or even worse, Pepper. However, if Banner would lend some assistance to the problem at hand, then perhaps Tony could finally make some actual headway. As in most cases when Tony was tasked with making a hefty choice, he defaulted to the wonderfully disasterous option of 'take all the risks'.

"I'm- I'm building a portal."

"Excuse me, what?" Banner blinked rapidly, as though doing so would change what Tony had said.

"I'm building a portal, so that they can't be weaponized against us again," Tony explained.

"Well, okay…" Banner shrugged. Apparently, Tony's hairbrained explanation made enough sense to him, even though it honestly only barely made sense to Tony, but whatever. "What aspect of it isn't working?"

"I can't get it to stay open for any length of time. It powers up, then shuts off almost immediately afterward."

"It sounds like it can't sustain power outside one circuit loop. Why aren't you using an arc reactor to power it?" Banner analyzed.

"I don't know if I'll be able to turn it off if I do that."

"Oh, fair point. Maybe you could try to extend the portion of the power circuit that is within the portal itself, see if that does anything?"

Tony felt like hitting himself. Maybe Pepper was right and he did need to sleep. How had he not thought of that himself? "That is a good idea, and I will do that."

Banner nodded, smiling. "Well, I'll leave you to it. I'm pretty hungry, so I'm actually going to go eat breakfast now. Bye, Tony," the call flickered off. Tony nodded at it even though Banner was long gone now.

Tony extended the circuit length and stepped back to run another test. The device powered up, like before, but then it actually ran - for just long enough to spit out two people, a man and a woman, both eerily familiar to Tony in a way he wasn't sure he wanted to examine. The man looked rather scared of his sudden change in surroundings, but the woman scanned the room with practiced ease, and when her eyes locked on him, she drew a gun on him.

"Who are who?" the woman demanded with a british accent, anger burning in her brown eyes. "How did you bring us here? What do want with us?"

Later, Tony would blame it on sleep deprivation, or something, but right then, with two strange people in his workshop, one of whom was pointing a gun at him, he couldn't help but scream.


	2. Chapter 2

Pepper bolted awake suddenly. Whatever had awakened her was gone by the time she was awake enough to process sounds, but she sensed something foreboding. "JARVIS?" she called on the AI, rubbing sleep from her eyes and pulling up the errant left strap of her sleep-tank.

"Ms. Potts, I must inform you that Mr. Stark's latest project has backfired quite spectacularly," the disembodied british voice informed her.

"Ugh, it's been much more than an hour, hasn't it? Well, I said I was going to to drag him to bed, so I should probably go do that," she slung her legs out of bed and stood up, stretching her arms up above her head.

"There is a complication with the backfire of Mr. Stark's project," JARVIS continued.

"Oh?" Pepper quirked an eyebrow quizzically. When wasn't there a complication with Tony's projects?

"Mr. Stark was working on a portal, and as such there are two unidentified individuals in the lab. One of them is pointing a handgun at Mr. Stark and demanding answers to her questions."

"Portals? Extra people? That man!" Pepper growled under her breath. "I'll go rescue the idiot from his own mistakes then." She slipped on her houseshoes and shrugged on her bathrobe as a nod to modesty, since she was meeting these people for the first time and therefore it was rather inappropriate to greet them in only polka-dot pajama pants and a sleep-tank that kept falling off her left shoulder. She wasn't very worried about one of them pointing a handgun at Tony, because for one she'd probably do the same if Tony accidentally kidnapped her, and for two Tony could definitely defend himself. If she was honest she was more furious at herself for not staying awake long enough to save Tony from himself like she said she would than anything else.

The red-head hurried down two flights to the lab, and came face-to-face with the three people downstairs in a rather anticlimactic manner. None of them realized she was there when she first entered the scene, so she took a moment to survey the situation. Tony was staring blankly at the strangers, mouth gaping like a goldfish. The woman pointing a gun at Pepper's scatterbrained love interest intermittently demanded answers to simple questions such as "Who are you?" and "Why/How did you bring us here?" in a british accent, while the man cowarded behind her. The woman had chocolate brown hair and eyes of the same color, whereas the man's hair was darker. They were entirely unfamiliar to her in appearance, but their demeanor and dynamic reminded her of stories she had heard before, although which ones she couldn't quite recall.

From this assessment of the problem at hand, Pepper came to the conclusion that there was only one good way to announce her presence. "Tony Stark, what is the meaning of this?" she yelled, cocking her hands on her hips and glaring at the hapless inventor.

Tony squeaked, nearly jumping out of his skin when he heard her. The two unfortunate victims of Tony's meddling with the natural order of things turned to look at her too, identical looks of complete and utter bafflement, presumably due to the words which had emerged from her mouth. "Stark?!" the woman said in a tone that could only be described as shocked, and her gun fell to the ground, her hand still outstretched towards the intelligent fool responsible for this whole mess.

"I am so sorry about him," Pepper turned to the duo, "he's sleep deprived." the last three words were growled out in a tone that could not in any way be called 'nice'.

Tony opened his mouth, as if to protest, but clearly thought better of it since he closed it again without saying a word.

"You called him 'Stark'," the woman blinked at Pepper. "Explain."

"It's his name…?" Pepper tilted her head in confusion. Tony was very famous, weather she liked it or not, so why would this woman not recognize his name? Unless something else was at play here, or Tony had messed up more than she initially thought...

"Howard doesn't have any relatives named 'Tony' to my knowledge, and definitely not ones this old," the woman scoffed, and - oh.

Oh, that's what this is.

Tony looked confused. Obviously the lack of sleep had dulled his senses, including all higher brain functions, more than Pepper had previously theorized, and certainly more than the inventor had realized.

"Tony!" she yelled, and he startled, turning towards her. "You built a time-portal?"

"I did?" he looked flummoxed. Yikes, she really needed to put him to bed, didn't she?

"Time-portal?" the woman yelped, and if Pepper was right…

"Ma'am, I feel I must ask you what year it was the last time you checked," if she was right, Pepper really needed to sit down.

"1949, of coarse," the woman furrowed her brow, bright red lips pursed in confusion.

"I'm awfully sorry," Pepper sighed. "But welcome to the year 2012."

The woman's mouth fell open and the man fainted away, both at a complete loss for words.

Pepper sighed. She walked over to the woman, who blinked and stood up a bit straighter. If she was right about who this woman was… Well, damn it, Potts, just say it already!

"My name is Pepper Potts," the red-head extended her hand to the brunette. "Would I be correct in assuming your name is Peggy Carter?"

"I… yes."


	3. Chapter 3

Peggy woke in unfamiliar surroundings, and began to panic. Where was she? How did she get here? Why was she here? Why was everything so vast and empty? Why did the air smell oddly sterile?

Then, all of a sudden, the last twenty-four hours all came back to her in a rush. The portal that had sucked up her and Jarvis. The firey red-head with a golden heart. Howard's son who talked a mile a minute.

Yesterday had been quite odd after that, Peggy reflected as she swung her legs out of the bed. Pepper Potts, the red-head, had hustled away Howard's son - Tony? - and put him to bed. A couple of hours later, and he was awake again, tirelessly fiddling with the machine that had brought them here in an effort to make it send them back. Peggy wasn't sure he was going to be successful. On some level, she almost didn't want him to be successful. But Angie was still in the other world, and must surely have been worried that Peggy was gone, and… well, Peggy wished Angie were here.

The strangest thing about Tony, however, was the glowing thing in his chest. It was rotund, glowed a sharp blue, and was was definitely not supposed to go in a human chest. In general, as far as Peggy knew, things were generally not meant to take up residence in a human torso, but this was the future, so what did she know? Both Tony and Pepper payed it no mind, so it must be normal, or at least normal for Tony. Peggy had not wanted to bring it up (that would be rude), and Jarvis had been valiantly trying not to faint again in the corner, so she wasn't even totally certain that he saw the damned thing.

It had gotten rather awkward, standing there and watching something that she, quite frankly, didn't understand in the slightest, so she approached Pepper and asked for a book to read, or a radio to listen to, or just something less dull than watching Tony fumble with wires and mutter to himself.

"Oh!" Pepper had looked so positively delighted to be asked, her whole face had lit up, stars in her eyes and a wide grin on her face, and clapped her hands together. "I would be delighted to find you something to read! Would you like a book from before or after 1949?"

Peggy thought for a moment, reflecting. If she picked out a book from before, that was the safer option, since if she picked out a book from after, she wouldn't be able to finish it for the longest time. But was she really going to pass up the chance to read a book that had yet to be written? No, no she was not. "After," she finally said.

Pepper beamed, "Oh, I know just the book to start you with!" she practically squealed, and darted off, returning shortly with a hardback volume with a reddish cover. "Here!" she shoved the book into Peggy's hands, "This was published in 1997, and is one of the most popular books of this time!"

Peggy looked down at the book, which was titled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. The book's dust-cover depicted a boy riding a flying broomstick and trying to catch a little winged ball, and several other things happening in the background which Peggy didn't have time to examine. "What is it about?" she asked.

"Magic!" Pepper grinned. "It's about a boy who goes to a magic school called Hogwarts, makes friends, and goes on all sorts of wonderful adventures!"

"Sounds fascinating," Peggy nodded, and moved into the corner where Jarvis sat, whimpering to himself, to sit and read.

By the end of the day, she'd read a fair portion of the book, having just finished the chapter about Halloween, and had developed a fair few opinions on the characters and the school. Particularly, she noted, she trusted Dumbledore about as far as she could throw him, and since he was a fictional character, she couldn't throw him at all. Also, what kind of school sorts people into highly competitive houses based on personality traits they exhibit at eleven? That seems a highly inefficient system with a high potential for toxicity.

But it was a new day now, one which seemed likely to be just as strange as yesterday, potentially more so, for the longer they stayed the more bizarre future things to which they would be exposed. Was it bad that Peggy almost wished to stay? She didn't really have much of anything to return to, aside from Angie, and this was the future! Something she would never have really gotten to experience if this hadn't happened, something that she wouldn't get to fully experience unless she stayed.

She made her way down the hall in pajamas she had borrowed from Pepper, which were a little big on her, and it was proving fruitless to try and keep the sleeves actually on her shoulders. She stopped in front of the room where Jarvis was staying, and rapped on the door semi-urgently. "Jarvis!" she called, wishing him up soon so they could talk, preferably about how crazy the future was, When she got a response, however, it was not from inside the room, but from the ceiling.

"How may I be of service, Miss Carter?"

Peggy wouldn't admit to it later, but she jumped about five feet into the air when that voice rang through the air. There was something irreversibly wrong about it, something unreal, yet eerily familiar. She also would not admit to shrieking in shock, but considering that a high pitched human noise definitely brought Pepper running, it probably actually happened.

"What's happening? Peggy, what's wrong?" the red-head came tumbling down the hall, hair mussed.

"There's a voice in the ceiling!" Peggy absolutely did not squeak. Such a thing would be highly undignified.

"My apologies, Miss Carter, I wrongly assumed that you had been made aware of my presence yesterday," and was it just Peggy, or did the damned ceiling voice sound smug as all hell when it said that? Like it was lying, or playing innocent, and trying to make a point about it?

Pepper glared at the ceiling. "JARVIS," she began, and what the bloody hell, why did the ceiling voice have the same name as her companion? And why did she feel as though she could practically hear it being said in all capital letters? "You knew full well that Peggy didn't know you were there, you can see the whole house! You were trying to make some sort of point, and in the process scared one of our guests! What do you have to say for yourself?"

"...My apologies, Miss Potts," all-caps JARVIS said, actually sounding contrite. "I feared that if I did not speak up, my presence would remain a secret from these two for some time."

Pepper sighed and conceded on that point. "It's true, we didn't want to scare you, but we probably should have just told you." She ran a hand through her hair and huffed. "Do you want to borrow some of my clothes? Since you only have what you arrived here in yesterday."

Peggy nodded and followed Pepper to her room, which she appeared to share with Tony, who had assumably retreated downstairs again, working tirelessly on the portal. Pepper got her an outfit from her oversized closet, which she presumably also shared with Tony, given the number of suits and shirts with slogans for… music groups, maybe? The outfit was similar in style to the one Peggy had been wearing when she arrived, but it felt off, just ever so slightly. Still, it was the best she was getting and she was fine with that.

The women went to collect Jarvis - she should probably get used to calling him Edwin, Peggy realized, because otherwise this whole thing with the all-caps JARVIS in the ceiling was going to be even weirder than it already was. They woke him up, introduced him to ceiling-JARVIS, which Pepper this time called an "AI" which apparently stood for "Artificial Intelligence". The way Peggy understood it, JARVIS was composed of electricity.

After Edwin was dressed, Pepper announced that it was time to make Tony eat some breakfast. Once they were downstairs, it became evident that Tony disagreed. He also seemed to think he was not going to be able to send Peggy and Edwin home, something Peggy had expected in the short term but knew in the long term would ultimately prove to be false.

"Look, Tony," she started. "I may barely know you, but from what I've seen you're an awful like your father - stubborn, pig-headed, lacking in common sense, and with a tendency to pretend feelings don't matter. Highly intelligent, but at the same time very stupid."

Tony just stared when Peggy started describing his father - most people seemed to venerate him to Tony's expense, especially after Howard died, so this was different. Also, he rather wondered where she was going with this.

"And maybe you can't get us home today, tomorrow, this week, this month, or even this year - but will be able to do so eventually. Don't waste your time on the problem when you are getting nowhere, but don't give up either. Now, Pepper says it's time for breakfast?" Peggy spun on her heel and stalked upstairs, not turning around to see if anyone was following - until she got lost trying to find the kitchen and had to go looking for them in order to find out where she was going.

Once they found the kitchen and Pepper had made them all bowls of oatmeal (while Peggy was still looking for the kitchen, no less), it was Tony who first said something. "So," he said, looking somewhat nervous for some reason, "If you're staying a little longer, we should probably get you caught up on recent history?"

There was a moment of silence stretching out across the table, and everyone looked at each-other, trying to gauge opinions. Pepper was giving Tony an unreadable look. Tony was refusing to meet anyone's eyes. Edwin looked mildly upset (probably because he was separated from Ana). Peggy… well, Peggy was the first to voice her thoughts.

"That sounds like a wonderful idea. When do we start?"


End file.
